Explore Best Travel Tips for Budget Travelers in India

How much does it cost to go to India? Daily budget planner, tipping information, duty free, taxes, refunds and bargaining. We know the feeling when long weekends or holidays approach or when there is simply that itch to bunk college or work and take off with friends to obscure places.

Even if you are on a very tight budget, you can almost always find a place to stay that won’t be too much of a stretch financially, but sometimes you have to really ask around. A budget hotel is not always called a hotel. It could also be called a lodge, boarding house, guesthouse, or even cafe. The word hotel more commonly refers to a simple eating place than to lodging. Youth hostels, YMCAs and dharmashalas lodges) are available in various places as well. Dharmashalas offer extremely basic accommodation for pilgrims, usually in dorms, but they don’t always take foreigners at Shimla Manali Tour .

Most budget places offer simple rooms furnished with beds that have mattresses made of foam or coir (fiber from the outer husk of the coconut), a fluorescent light, maybe a chair and table, and sometimes a ceiling fan. Some rock-bottom budget places may provide only a bare wooden platform bed or a cot with no mattress at all. If you can’t bear rock-hard beds, bring a camp pad. Bathrooms may be attached or common, but they tend to be basic. The cheapest budget places often have dormitories (separate for men and women, of course) with common baths.

Baths are usually of the bucket kind. Hot water can often be ordered during the cold season for Rs.5-10 a bucket, but otherwise it may not be available, especially in the South. Sometimes there may be a geyser (hot water heater), but if it doesn’t come on when you press the switch, there is probably a master switch that is turned on only at certain hours or for a short time on request.

There may be no sheets, or perhaps a single sheet plus a blanket or bedspread. Traveling on a budget means that you will inevitably encounter places where the sheets are unsavory and the blankets are never washed, so it is recommended to use a sheet sleeping bag. You can buy one before you come or else have one made in India. All you need is about five meters of fabric (depending on your size), folded so that the bottom is a couple of feet longer than the top and stitched most of the way up one side and maybe a foot or two up the other, with a kind of pocket at the top folded under and stitched so that you can insert a pillow. Silk sheet sleeping bags are the lightest and easiest to carry, while pure cotton bags are the coolest. Or you could have one made with silk on the bottom and lightweight cotton on top.

Low-budget places don’t provide towels, so you have to bring your own. If they supply drinking water, it is generally not adequately purified, so avoid it.

Budget rooms almost always have a bolt-and-hasp type of lock. A padlock and key is usually provided, but you are much safer using You’re your own, science you don’t know who else might have a copy of the key. A cable lock and steel-mesh cover for your backpack is highly recommended if you are carrying anything valuable. Dormitories often have a steel closet where you can lock up Your things, but you need to provided your own lock.

The cheapest places can be downright seedy, though some are spotlessly clean and altogether delightful, especially in the more remote areas. Check the room before taking it and ask to see a few rooms, if possible. Check for cleanliness, bedbugs, security, a working fan (and whether it is really noisy, if that would bother you), the bathroom and hot water situation, etc.

Bedbugs, lice and fleas tend to harbor in unwashed linens and old mattresses, which is why it is good to have a sheet sleeping bag. If you see little bloody spots on the sheets, you can assume that there are bedbugs.

Window screens are not the norm in budget places, and mosquitoes are, so you should carry a mosquito net.

Camping is not a realistic option most places in India unless you are trekking or rafting in the mountains. There are no campgrounds in India like there are in Western countries. Some hotels and guesthouses provide space for tents on their property, but these are mostly in the mountains along the major trekking routes. Sometimes you can arrange with private families to camp on their property. It would be rude to set up your tent on someone’s property without asking in advance. Offering the family between, say, 50-100 rupees would be appropriate, depending on the circumstances, and if they were initially reluctant, it might change their mind.

This is a delicate point, but it must be mentioned, although it may not apply to most of you: Indians appreciate clothing that is neat, clean, and conservative, and they are appalled by foreigners who make a point of looking impoverished-wearing grubby, ragged clothing, with dirty or matted hair, going barefoot on the streets, etc. This appearance is considered to be far beneath the dignity of someone who was able to afford the price of a ticket to India. Some foreigners regard this style of dress as a show of solidarity with the Indian masses, but even India’s poorest people don’t see it like that. In fact, many people find it offensive-though, of course, the majority of Indians are too polite to say so even if you ask. No matter how right a budget you are on, it is best to be as well groomed as you can. If you feel you have no time to wash your clothesFree Reprint Articles, it’s time to slow down. Find More information visit at http://www.swantour.com